Cidera Announces Launch of 'Cidera Multicast' Service

(July 18, 2001)

Cidera has announced the launch of Cidera Multicast, a fresh approach to content distribution that is designed to efficiently distribute live streaming content throughout the Internet, using IP multicast technology.

Working in concert with its ISP affiliates, Cidera will be delivering IP multicast content via satellite to end users. Cidera's new service scales to reach millions of consumers at a fraction of the cost that content distribution networks charge today.

Until now, content distribution costs have presented a major obstacle for large-audience streaming media broadcasts on the Internet. Every additional viewer has added extra cost in terms of Internet bandwidth and server load. Now, Cidera provides a solution where the cost of a webcast is constant, regardless of the number of viewers.

Cidera Multicast is an ideal solution for content providers and aggregators to distribute rich media to large audiences. Examples of content best suited for Cidera's broadcast distribution include live entertainment events, news services, and financial conferences.

Cidera, which pioneered the world's first and largest satellite-based network for the delivery of Internet content, offers high quality by delivering streams directly to the edge. Cidera Multicast avoids Internet bottlenecks that cause congestion, data loss, and delay.

"Cidera Multicast represents a new broadcast platform for streaming content to the Internet," said Doug Humphrey, Chairman and CEO of Cidera. "With Cidera Multicast, for the first time content providers will be able to deliver content without servers simultaneously to millions of end users internationally with uncompromised quality and predictable costs."

The global market for broadband satellite services is poised for significant long-term growth, according to a market research report recently released by Northern Sky Research (www.northernskyresearch.com).

The report, titled "Broadband Satellite Markets: A Comprehensive Analysis of Trends and Opportunities," forecasts that the global market for IP multicasting and content delivery services via satellite will grow from $160 million in 2001 to $3.08 billion in 2006.

"Satellites are ideal for distributing broadcast content that multiple users view simultaneously," said Chris Baugh, principal analyst and founder of Northern Sky Research and author of the report. "By combining the strengths of Cidera's satellite footprint with IP multicasting, Cidera Multicast offers scalable coverage at a fraction of the traditional distribution cost, feeding high quality content to hundreds of edge POPs internationally."

Ram Viswanathan, Cidera's Senior Vice President, Business Development and Strategy, said, "Cidera Multicast is establishing a new business model for streaming on the Internet. This is truly a win-win situation that offers ISPs more efficient bandwidth usage, and provides significantly lower content distribution costs for content providers. Consumers also benefit from rich content they have access to as a result of more affordable multicast streaming."